in class this morning

The main thing we're going to be doing today is making as sure as we can that everybody understands as thoroughly as possible how this course is going to work. Because it's very different from most -- and even from most of mine -- it's important that people have time to consider in detail what's going to happen and how they feel about that. I'll begin, in a few moments, by giving out the course introduction, which is a lengthy document in which I try to say as much as I can about how this course will be conducted and what its aims and methods are -- and about why it's organized this way.

You may already have read an earlier version of this document, on line. It's worth reading it again. Here's why.

For one thing, (a) I've edited it substantially in the last few days, adjusting it to the demands of the new schedule, and maybe making it clearer. For another, (b) documents are never as clear as I hope they'll be; second readings often help. And, finally (c) often second (or third) readings identify problems or questions you hadn't thought about the first time. It's also worth reading it while thinking about the other folks who didn't get their email, or who enrolled late, and who may need some help getting clear about it.

In some ways, this course's central intention is to help people learn to read better -- with more engagement, imagination, and resonance -- and part of its strategy is to work with writing as much as possible as a way to organize the conduct of the course. Hence, most of the structuring of the course will be done through "prompts" like this one, which will be distributed in print, and which are also available on the course Web site (which you should plan on visiting regularly, since it's integral to the conduct of the course). These prompts will usually, like this one, be pretty discursive; they won't be lists of instructions. I want people to understand why I'm doing what I do. Helping people learn to read this sort of writing is part of my aim, in this and all my courses.

So, to reading. I'm going to structure the process in two parts, one of which begins now, and the second occurs between now and next Wednesday. Here's how the first part will work.

Take the course introduction away with you. Read it with care (as my colleague Thom Parkhill phrases it, "read suspiciously"). Think about what its implications are, how things described abstractly might work in practice, what's not clear, what you'd like to know more about. Imagine what might be confusing for others, even though you think you get it. Make marginal notes. Underline or highlight things. Spend as much time as you need. Think about some questions you might ask. Then write down one or two.  Bring them back to class by 9:45. I'll set up some groups; read the questions other people brought back.  Then, in about ten minutes, one of the members of your group should write two or three (or four, if absolutely necessary) you think we should talk about here, or that I should answer on the course Web site, on a separate sheet of paper.

We'll take as much time as we have to deal with questions now.  If there are questions we haven't dealt with, I'll respond to them via email by this evening, and we'll continue the discussion, if there are still issues that should be straightened out, in class on Friday morning. If further questions occur to you, it would be useful to post them to the course email list hunt2223@stu.ca; that way all of us will know about them. I'll respond if I can.